"Kill her!" Louise screamed, spinning away from Seth to point an accusing finger at me. I wondered if, as her mother's knight, she could override the order not to harm me. Somehow I doubted vermin had complex thought processes beyond, Queen say no bite, knight say bite. I hoped the queen's orders prevailed and offered me a small measure of immunity.
"Jack’s close," Jake whispered from beside me, and then he disappeared into the sea of vermin. After this was over, I was going to ask how he had done that. Why did they not bite him?
Seth raised his foot and booted Louise from behind. She lurched forward and hit the ground. I was outraged and proud at the same time. An ignoble act from my aristocratic suitor, but I cheered that the horrid bint finally ate dirt. Seth jumped past Elizabeth and leapt up onto the queen's throne, giving him the higher ground as he cast around for a weapon.
Elizabeth looked somewhat bemused, as though a serious dinner party had turned into drunken charades. She adjusted the cuffs of her dress as though waiting for the staff to evict the troublemakers. It had always bothered me when step-mother was calm; it meant she knew something I didn't, and it usually ended up with me black and blue. Louise turned as red as her jacket as she scrabbled to her feet and screamed at the vermin to capture me and Seth.
Seth's claymore waved in and out of my view and I charged toward it, slashing vermin as I went. I didn't bother to take the time to decapitate; I simply swung at limbs that blocked my way. Jack and reinforcements may have been close, but my immediate concern was reclaiming our weapons and giving Seth a way to defend himself.
A whump rattled my bones and I squinted as fire blazed through my vision. I tried to ignore the flames leaping to the roof of the cavern and concentrated on the dancing claymore. A new bonfire blazed in one part of the vermin ocean. Judging by its similarity to the smouldering stand of trees, I'd say Seth had tossed his grenade. I was disappointed he hadn't made good on his promise to shove it into Louise's chest.
This time, instead of staring at the fire, the vermin seemed to heave. A wave rolled through the packed bodies, and raced toward the burning section. These ones stood close to the edge of the river. As the wave crashed into them, the human-sized candles were tossed into the water and extinguished.
Clearing the red haze from my eyes, I lunged at the glint of metal before me. My hand finally grabbed the claymore and I pulled it free by booting the vermin backwards. I spun to locate Seth, hoping I hadn't run too far from the Elizabeth's central stage. I found him whacking vermin with a lump of slate. Louise danced beyond his reach, screaming for someone to do something, but it was step-mother who drew my gaze.
Elizabeth moved to the centre of her court and stood by the solitary lantern in the fire pit. She tucked her hair back behind her ears and rolled her neck. Then she closed her eyes and bowed her head for a long moment. The moan around us rose in pitch and intensity. It reminded me of when Trusty the motorcycle idled, and a light touch on the throttle made the engine rev higher.
Bit by bit, I circled closer, mesmerised by whatever the queen was doing. Then, her head snapped up and she raised her arms to the ceiling. The sleeves of her dress tumbled down to her elbows and revealed the black veins criss-crossing over her skin, as though black lace encased her forearms. The lethal lines pumped the vermin poison through her body. With her head thrown back, she emitted a soundless cry, but every undead creature in the cavern answered. As though she summoned all the vermin under her control.
Ice water ran through my veins and a sharp chill washed over me. Elizabeth played her last hand and I had no idea what was coming, except that I didn't like the look of it one bit. I needed to reach Seth and give him back his sword. I hacked a path through the vermin. They seemed dazed and slower. Their milky eyes were now completely blind to events around them as they turned inward to commune with their queen. Outstretched arms grasped at air as I ran through them.
I jumped up beside Seth on the throne and handed over the claymore. We stood back to back as the vermin drew inward, called by their queen.
"Jake says they are close," I said over my shoulder. Pressed to his back, some of Seth's warmth leeched through to my cold body. I kept squinting toward the tunnel, but it was too dark and too far to detect any movement. Meanwhile, hundreds of critters crawled to answer their mistress. If I were totally honest, the situation had veered ever so slightly in their favour. Thoughts of not making it out alive started to gnaw through my confidence. Did I want to become undead without telling Seth how I felt? This didn't seem like the right moment, but what if the exact right time never arrived?
"Seth?" I whispered. My stomach flip-flopped. I could lop off a head, but three little words might make me gag.
"Yes?" His head turned a fraction; neither of us could afford to pull our gaze from the tide rising around us.
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. My tongue licked my lips and the words rasped over them. "I love you."
He reached out with his left hand and his thumb stroked the heel of my palm that held my sword. A simple touch that warmed me and reminded me of his constant love. "I love you too, Ella, but perhaps we could discuss it in more comfortable surroundings, once we kill your step-mother?"
Oh yes. I'd like to be very comfortable when I discussed how much he meant to me. I'd like to be lying in his arms in front of his library fire.
Having resolved one issue out loud and another in my head, I could return to the current problem. From our slightly higher location, I was reminded of watching a mechanical gear. I used to peer over father's shoulder as he tinkered with the workings of his pocket watch. There was a similarity between the delicate artistry used to keep time and the way the creatures came together and moved. An outer ring of vermin turned and wound inward with each revolution it performed. Louise was another cog, following a smaller route around the throne. Elizabeth stood off to the side, like a lever ready to be set off. What happened when the entire mechanism was activated?
Louise stopped, hands on her hips as her gaze roamed over us. A sneer on her face. "Was that your great escape attempt, and it’s over already? You really are pathetic. What exactly did you think you were going to achieve down here?"
I gripped the sword tighter. If she came closer we might find out if a knight vermin retained its intelligence once decapitated. "Alice is safe, and Seth has buggered your plans because you didn't listen to local gossip. I'd say that was worth the trip down here."
Seth's family had done a fabulous job of keeping that secret to themselves. Speculation had always focused on Frank's parentage, but no one ever doubted Seth's origins, despite the gossip about his mother. Did that mean Seth was only half noble, like me? Would Frank now become the duke?
"Both situations are temporary. Once mother mobilises our forces, we will swarm over Somerset and find them both." Louise sneered. She could have been beautiful, but her cruelty had always deformed her features. She wore her face like a façade or a mere reflection upon the water, while the troll lurked just below the surface.
I faced off against my long-term nemesis and shuffled from foot to foot while I tried to come up with a witty retort. Her gaze narrowed and her lip twitched in a smile.
The woman had no redeemable qualities at all. At least with Charlotte I glimpsed her humanity at times and hoped she would flourish out from under her mother's thumb. Louise was a creature of Elizabeth's creation twice over. How could two sisters be so different? One embraced the rot in her soul while the other fought it.
I itched to lop her head off, but I rubbed it away. The war stretched far beyond our little community, and for soldiers the world over to repel the vermin plague, we needed information. Louise was going to be useful for once in her life.
"Well, Louise, let me explain in very small words what I intend to achieve down here. Firstly, I'm going to capture you and you're going to live out the rest of your unnatural life chained up as a pet for the War Office. You're going to be their hideous songbird, singing of all you know about vermin to advance their knowledge." Keep her talking for a little bit longer. A gentle tremor worked its way up from the cavern floor, across the stones we stood on, and up through to my boots, a regular beat that eased my heart with each faint thump.
Louise threw back her head and laughed. "And how, exactly, will the little scullery maid do any of that?"
I smiled. "You wouldn't understand, Louise. You see, I have these people in my life called friends. My very dearest friend, Alice, is going to use her mallet."
Louise frowned, about to throw another retort when the whack echoed through the cavern like a retort from a rifle. Louise's eyes rolled up in her head, and for a moment, her irises flashed pure red. Her knees buckled and she began to drop to the ground like a piece of rope that had been untied from a tree branch and simply coiled itself up. Then, everything turned muddy brown as a sack went over her head and was pulled down to her waist. The rough hessian fabric neatly captured her arms.
"Never did like her," Frank muttered as he pushed her flat to the cavern floor and looped a rope several times around her torso. He bound her arms tightly to her sides under the sack and then ran the rope down to bind her knees and ankles. Then he tied the end off tight.
Hard to believe a simple croquet mallet was responsible. Alice stood behind my tormentor and emitted a giggle. She twirled the mallet over her shoulder. "Is it wrong that I really enjoyed doing that?"
"It would make a fabulous new game for the next village fête," I said. In my mind, I imagined a table with holes cut in it. Vermin could be shoved up from underneath, so only their heads and necks exposed. People could be given mallets and told to try whacking their noggins off. However, if Reverend Mason ever returned from his crisis of faith, he might not approve of such antics.
Frank rolled Louise over onto her back. Now she did look exactly like a present, trussed up and waiting for Christmas.
Jack and Jake appeared from the gloom, saluted Seth, and spoke in eerie unison. "Everyone is assembled and waiting your command, captain."
Seth returned their salute, but before he could speak, Elizabeth screamed. "Louise!" Her screech was echoed by the vermin. Her arms dropped to her sides. Her nostrils flared as two soldiers dragged her daughter to one side and farther away from the queen and the mass of undead.
Army boots hitting dirt were a steady rumble through the catacomb as the lads encircled the vermin. Light burst through the cavern as the flamethrower units poured down the tunnel and aimed their nozzles. Liquid fire shot out in front of the men carrying dangerous backpacks.
The first signs of panic rippled through the vermin as Elizabeth's control shook. Bodies scurried and pushed one another out of the way from short, deadly bursts of flame. Fire herded the vermin toward the centre of the space and tighter around the soaring stones. Surrounded, they rushed to their queen and formed a thickly-packed defensive ring around her.
Let them, I thought, the flamethrowers would make easy work of them. It would be like lighting tightly-bound bundles of sticks under a witch's feet.
"What shall we do the prisoner, captain?" a soldier asked.
"Deliver her up top to the truck. And make sure she stays secure. I want her guarded at all times. We can't have her escaping on us." Seth replied.
Muffled noises came from under the bag. Louise had never been particularly polite, and I’d wager she was using colourful language to curse me soundly. I had no idea what the War Office would do with her, but she was no longer my problem. I had offered to keep a roof over her head, and she chose this path. We all had to accept responsibility for our actions. Which reminded me of one last responsibility I had to deal with.
Time to dispatch step-mother.
The imaginary mechanism continued to wind, but now the gears spiralled in under Elizabeth and lifted her up. Bodies formed a plinth under her and the creatures raised her upward, beyond my reach.
She cast a murderous gaze down at me, and then she laughed.